Art of producing shoe-stiffeners.



' W. B'. ARNOLD. ART OF PRODUCING SHOE STIFFENERS. APPLIOATIDN FILEDAPR.1, 1908.

1,000,483, Pat entedAug. 15,1911.

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wield/2am B. az nold.

y Wigs WILLIAM B. ARNOLD, 0F ABINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS.-

ART .OF PRODUGING SHOE-STIFFENERS.

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Specification of Letters Patent. Pafigntgd Aug. 15 1911 Applicationfiled April 1, 1908. Serial No. 424,488.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VVILLIAM B: ARNOLD, a citizen of the United States,and a resident of Abington, in the county of Plymouth and State ofMassachusetts, have invented an Improvement in the Art of ProducingShoe-Stifi'eners, of which the following description, in connection withthe accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on thedrawings representing like parts.

My invention relates to the manufacture of heel counters, box toes andother stitleners employedin the manufacture of boots and shoes, the aimof my invention being to economize and improve such manufac' ture.

My invention consists in certain features of novelty relating to the artof making such stilil'eners, which will be best understood from adescription of one embodiment of my invention illustrated in theaccompanying drawings'and whichwill be particularly described in thefollowing specification.

' In the drawings: Figure 1, in perspective, showsa sheet of leather orother suitable material, from which the stii'li'enersare to be formed,this figure indicating certain of the lines along winch the mater al issevered or slit; Fig. 2, also in perspective, shows one of the stripsformed by slitting or cutting as indicated in Fig. l, and indicating thetransverse lines along which the strip is severed to. further reduce thematerial to blank form; Figs. 3, 4t, 5 and (3 are views illustratingvarious steps in the production of the completed stiffener, in thepresent instance a box too, from one of the blanks obtained by cuttingas in Fig. Figs. 7, 8, 9 and 10, similar views, where the stilleucr tobe formed is a heel counter; and Fig. li, a perspective view of acomplete siillencr,

molded to shape, before introduction into the shoe.

In the particular embodiment of my in truly rectangular for convenienceand clearness of illustration. In accordance with my invention, I firstslit this sheet along longitudinal and preferably parallel lines, theslits beingin each case beveled. For the most economical manufacturethese bevels should be alternately in opposite directions, so'tliat thestrips formed thereby wili'have their opposite edges oppositelybeveled,.the strips themselves presenting a greater width at one than atthe opposite face. To be sure, the strips so formed present the grainface alternately at the narrow and at the wide faces, but this is not ofmaterial concern where the greatest economy of stock is desired. Thestrips formed by the longitudinal slitting are then (see Fig. 2)transversely severed, or substantially so, by cutting or slitting alongpreferably parallel lines 2--2,-which are also beveled or inclined and,shown, preferably similarly beveled so that the blanks 3 formed therebyare nested, so to speak, one overlapping the other. a

Referring now to Fig. 3, which shows one of the blanks in plan View, itwill be 0bserved that the same at one, for example the top, lacepresents a straight bevel 4, with end bevels 5-5, while at the oppositeface, along the edge opposite the bevel 4, the said blank presents abevel 6. By varying the pitch of the slitting knife the width of thevarious bevcls may obviously be varied as desired, according totheparl'irular article which it is desired shall be n'iade from theblank. The blank beveled as in Fig, is then died out to shape, in Fig.l, to form in the presen a box toe, the shape of which maybe varied asdesired but which is herein shown as of customary shape. ll: will. beobserved that its bottom edge, which is the edge havin the greatestlength: a straight bevel, which is the bevel 4- of the blank shown inFig. 3. it also presents at its two sides straight bcvels 5-1), whichare the correspondingly numbered bcvels of the blank, Fig. 3, and at itsupper edge and opposite face presents another straight-bevel, which isthe bevel ii of the blank 3, so that for the first time in the art,

the box cut out in Fig. l presents along so far as I am aware, I form astiffener or a stiffener blank having an irregular or partially curved,desired outline with its edges, however, beveled along rectilinear lineswhich are preferably perpendicular one to the other. Such stiffener orstiffener blank is, however, not claimed in this application. Where thebevels l, 5 and 6 are of suilicient width the completed box or stiffenermay be died or cut from the blank and used without further beveling uponthe skiv'ing or other machine as is now required. Should it be desired,however, to reduce the prominence provided by the additional thicknessat the points 77 which by reason of the curved outline of. thestiffener, are brought nearer to the periphery thereof than where thebevel reaches in to a greater degree, such prominence may be reduced bycompression,

which conveniently may be the compression ordinarily employed in shapingthe stiffener either roughly or exactly to final shape, as illustratedin Fig. 11. In this case, a stiffener would be provided in which thethinned or beveled edges would be in art out and in part compressed.

' Figs. 7 to 10, inclusive, illustrate the corresponding steps in theformation of a heel counter, and in Fig. 11 the lower and thinned edgeof the stifiener is shown as inturned, to form the usual stiffener seat.It will be observed that practically no stock whatsoever is wasted inthe production of stifleners in the manner herein provided for. The onlywaste that exists is that due to the change in outline of the stiffenerfrom the blank 3 shown in Fig. 3, but itwill benoticed that even theblank is approximately shaped like the completed article, its lower edgebeing straight and presenting right-angled corners and its upper edgehaving its corners clipped at 88 so that the waste here is reduced to aminimum and, because the waste at these points is of the thinned orbeveled stock, is stillfurther reduced.

My invention permits ordinarily more than ninety per cent. of theoriginal stock or blank to be actually utilized in the completedarticles therefrom and the result is that a better quality of stock maybe used to the improvement of the article in which it incorporated atthe same or less cost as compared with stitfeners made in accordancewith the prevailing methods.

Having described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patcut is,

1. That improvement in the art of producing shoe stilfeners withoutsubstantial waste of stock which consists in slitting a sheet intostrips along longitudinal, straight, substantially parallel cuts andalternately on opposite bcvels, slitting the strips so formedtransversely at substantially right angles on bevels of like generaldirection,

thereby-to produce a blank having at one face a beveled bottom and twobeveled sides and at its opposite face a beveled top, then dieing orcutting out the blank on lines con fined to said four beveled edges andthen molding or fashioning the blank into final shape.

2. That improvement in the art of producing shoe stiifeners withoutsubstantial waste of stock which consistsin slitting a sheet into stripsalong longitudinal, straight, substantially parallel cuts andalternately on opposite bevels, slit-ting the strips so formedtransversely at substantially. right angles on bevels of like generaldirection, thereby to produce a blank having three beveled edges at oneface and its fourth beveled edge at the opposite face, the blank be ingsubstantially rectangular excepting for the cut away corners at the saidfourthcbeveled edge, then dieing or cutting out the blank on linesapproximating the shape of said cut away corners and the three bevelededges meeting thereat and then molding or fashioning the blank intofinal shape.

3. That improvement in the art of producing shoe stifieners withoutsubstantial waste of stock which consists in slitting a sheet intostrips along longitudinal, straight, substantially parallel cuts andalternately on opposite bevels, slitting the strips so formedtransversely at substantially right angles on bevels of like generaldirection, thereby to produce a blank having three beveled cdges'at oneface and its fourth beveled edge at the opposite face, the blank beingsub stantially rectangular, excepting for the cut away corners at thefourth beveled edge,-

then dieing or cutting out the blank on lines confined to said fourthbeveled edge and approximating the shape of said cut away corners, andthen molding the blank into final shape.

l. That improvement in the art of producing shoe stiffener-s withoutsubstantial waste of stoclnwl'iich consists in slitting a sheet intostrips along longitudinal straight lines and alternately on oppositebevels, slitting the strips so formed transversely on right lines onbevcls of like general dircclion, to form stiffener blanks beveled onfour sides along rectilinear lines, dieing or cutting a plurality ofsaid beveled edges into the approximate desired form and then molding orfashioning the blank into final shape. l

5. That improvement in the art of producing shoe stiifeners withoutsubstantial waste of stock, which consists in slitting a sheet intostrips along longitudinal, substantially straight parallel cuts andalternately on opposite bevels, slitting the strips so formedtransversely at substantially rightangles on bevcls of like generaldirection, thereby to produce a blank having at one In testimonywhereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence oftwo subscribing Witnesses.

VVILLIAEJ B. ARNOLD,-

face a beveled bottom and two beveled sides and at its opposite face abeveled top, then dieing or cutting out the blank along linespenetrating the said beveled portion of said blank and at leaet mainlylimited thereto, \Vitnesses:

and finally molding or fashioning the blank l FREDERICK L. EME'RY, infinal shape. ROBERT H. KAMM'LER.

